Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Agrarianism: The Way to Sustainability and Resilience

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Life on Land

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals ((ENUNSDG))

  • 187 Accesses

Synonyms

Agrarian values; Agricultural ethics; Agroecological resilience; Family farm; Food ethics; Livestock welfare; Ruralism; Small farm; Soil sustainability

Definitions

Agrarianism is an intellectual, emotional, and at times spiritual devotion to farming and rural living. Agrarians see value in living and working with nature, to produce vital food stuffs. Agrarians celebrate rural community, which includes not just human neighbors but livestock, wildlife, and the living ecosystem. They hold the family farm, where each person plays his or her integral role, in high esteem. In recent decades, agrarians have stressed not only the shared chores and the neighborly good turns but also the shared sense of stewardship of the land, the soil, the ecosystem, and the environment, which is being diminished if not lost with the rise of the free enterprise-minded, industrial-scale farmer whose eye is set on the bottom line. Sustainability with respect to Agrarianism and family farming refers to...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Altieri MA et al (2015) Agroecology and the design of climate change-resilient farming systems. Agron Sustain Dev 35:869–890

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ames RT, Callicott JB (eds) (1989) Nature in Asian traditions of thought: essays in environmental philosophy. State University of New York Press, Albany

    Google Scholar 

  • Barrientos S, Dolan C (2006) Ethical sourcing in the global food system. EARTHSCAN, London/New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Beluhova-Uzunova R, Atanasov D (2019) Biodynamic agriculture: old traditions and modern practices. National scientific program of Bulgarian ministry of education and science “Healthy foods for strong bio-economy and quality of life”, 2018–2022. https://doi.org/10.15547/tjs.s.01.084

  • Berry W (2003) The art of the commonplace: the agrarian essays of Wendell Berry. Counterpoint, Berkeley

    Google Scholar 

  • Brain R (2012) The local food movement: definitions, benefits, and resources. Utah State University extension sustainability. September 2012

    Google Scholar 

  • Callicott JB (1987) Companion to a sand county almanac: interpretive and critical essays. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison

    Google Scholar 

  • Carlson C (2012) The ag gag laws: hiding factory farm abuses from public scrutiny. The Atlantic, March 20, 2012

    Google Scholar 

  • Carson R (1962) Silent spring. Houghton Mifflin, Boston

    Google Scholar 

  • Chueh H-c (2018) My dream of life in a rural world: a nonfiction media representation of rural idyll in Taiwan. J Rural Stud 2018:1–10

    Google Scholar 

  • Cody S (2019) “A new consciousness of the countryside?”: Elite ruralism in contemporary China. Asian Anthropol 18(1):21–36

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dahlberg K (2012) Beyond the green revolution: the ecology and politics of global agricultural development. Springer, Cham

    Google Scholar 

  • Donaldson S (ed) (2006) I’ll take my stand: the south and the agrarian tradition by 12 southerners (75th anniversary ed.). Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge

    Google Scholar 

  • Ferguson R, Lovell S (2014) Permaculture for agroecology: design, movement, practice, and worldview. A review. Agron Sustain Agric 34:251–274

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Freyfogel ET (2001) The new agrarianism: land, culture, and the community of life. Island Press, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Freyfogel ET (2007) Agrarianism and the good society: land, culture, conflict, and hope. The University Press of Kentucky, Lexington

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Glaeser B (2010) The green revolution revisited: critique and alternatives. Routledge, London

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Gliessman SR, Engles E, Krieger R (1998) Agroecology: ecological processes in sustainable agriculture. CRC Press, Boca Raton

    Google Scholar 

  • Graham AC (1979) The “Nung-chia” ‘school of the tillers’ and the origins of peasant utopianism in China. Bull Sch Orient Afr Stud 42(1):66–100

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Graham AC (1989) Idealization of the small community: the utopia of Shen-nung, in disputers of the Tao: philosophical argument in ancient China. Open Court, La Salle, pp 64–74

    Google Scholar 

  • Harwood J (2013) Development policy and history: lessons from the Green Revolution. History and Policy, 14 June 2013

    Google Scholar 

  • Hathaway MD (2015) Agroecology and permaculture: addressing key ecological problems by rethinking and redesigning agricultural systems. J Environ Stud Sci. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13412-015-0254-8

  • Hazell P, Rahman A (2014) New directions for smallholder agriculture. Oxford University Press, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Henderson E, Van En R (2007) Sharing the harvest: a citizen’s guide to community supported agriculture. Chelsea Green Publishing, White River Junction

    Google Scholar 

  • Hesiod (2017) Theogony and works and days: a new critical edition (trans: Johnson K). Northwestern University Press, Evanston

    Google Scholar 

  • Horace (1983) The odes (trans: Shepherd WD). Penguin Books, Harmondsworth

    Google Scholar 

  • Joshi M (1999) Green-revolution and its impacts. A.P.H. Publishing, New Delhi

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirchhelle C (2018) Pharming animals: a global history of antibiotics in food production (1935–2017). Palgrave Commun 4:96. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-018-0152-2

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kneafsey M, Cox R, Holloway L, Dowler E, Venn L, Tuomainen H (2008) Reconnecting consumers, producers, and food: exploring alternatives. Berg, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Kraham SJ (2017) Environmental impacts of industrial livestock production. In: Steier G, Patel K (eds) International farm animal, wildlife and food safety law. Springer, Cham

    Google Scholar 

  • Lee Y, Sugiura H (2018) Key factors in determining migration to rural areas and its promoting measures: a case study of Hirosaki city, Aomori prefecture. Public Policy Rev (Jpn) 14(1):153–176

    Google Scholar 

  • Leimruger W, Chang CD (eds) (2019) Rural areas between regional needs and global challenges: transformation in rural space. Springer, Cham

    Google Scholar 

  • Lengnick L (2015) Resilient agriculture: cultivating food systems for a changing climate, new society. C New Society Publishers, Gabriola Island

    Google Scholar 

  • Leopold A (1949) A sand county almanac: and essays in conservation from Round River. Oxford University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Li X (2016) Environmental advertising in China and the USA: the desire to go green. Routledge, London

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Locke J (1956) In: Gough JW (ed) The second treatise on civil government and a letter concerning toleration. Blackwell Press, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Manyi-loh C, Mamphweli S, Meyer E, Okoh A (2018) Antibiotic use in agriculture and its consequential resistance in environmental sources: potential public health implications. Molecules. https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules23040795

  • McNeely JA, Scherr SJ (2003) Ecoagriculture: strategies to feed the world and save wild diversity. Island Press, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • McNeely JA, Scherr SJ (2007) Farming with nature: the science and practice of ecoagriculture. Island Press, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Mollison BC (1990) Permaculture: a practical guide for a sustainable future. Island Press, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Pepper D (2008) The toxic consequences of the green revolution: in India farmers find that benefits of pesticides and herbicides may come at a tragically high cost. US News and World Report, July 7, 2008

    Google Scholar 

  • Ploeg JD v d (2008) The new peasantries: struggles for autonomy and sustainability in an era of empire and globalization. EARTHSCAN, London/New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Siu C (2014) Taiwan transition: from city life to the countryside. BBC News, Taoyuan November 26, 2015

    Google Scholar 

  • Spurr MS (1986) Agriculture and the ‘Georgics’. Greece Rome 33(2):164–187

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Steiner R (2004) Agriculture course: the birth of biodynamic method. Rudolph Steiner Press, Forest Row

    Google Scholar 

  • Strong D (1996) Crazy Mountains: learning from wilderness to weigh technology. State University of New York Press, Albany

    Google Scholar 

  • Thompson P (1995) The spirit of the soil: agriculture and environmental ethics. Routledge Books, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Thompson P (2010) The agrarian vision. The University of Kentucky Press, Lexington

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Thompson P (2015) The fork to field: food ethics for everyone. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Thompson P, Stout B (1991) Beyond the large farm: ethics and research goals for agriculture. Westview Press, Boulder

    Google Scholar 

  • Thompson P, Thompson K (eds) (2018) Agricultural ethics in east Asian perspective: a transpacific dialogue. Springer Books, Cham

    Google Scholar 

  • Thoreau HD (1992) The bean field, & Baker farm Strong 1995. In: Rossi W (ed) Walden and resistance to civil government. W.W. Norton, New York, pp 104–111 and 135–140

    Google Scholar 

  • Vardi L (2012) The physiocrats and the world of the enlightenment. Cambridge University Press, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Verstegen JA (2020) The local versus global food debate. Nat Food 1:198–199. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-020-0062-5

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Virgil (2005) Virgil’s Georgics (Yale new classics) (trans: Lembke J). Yale University Press, New Haven

    Google Scholar 

  • Wirth JM (2017) Mountains, rivers, and the great earth: reading Gary Snyder and Dogen in an age of ecological crisis. State University Press of New York, Albany

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Kirill Ole Thompson

Authors
  1. Kirill Ole Thompson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kirill Ole Thompson .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. European School of Sustainability, Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

    Walter Leal Filho

  2. Center for Neuroscience & Cell Biology, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

    Anabela Marisa Azul

  3. Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Passo Fundo University Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Passo Fundo, Brazil

    Luciana Brandli

  4. HAW Hamburg, Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

    Amanda Lange Salvia

  5. International Centre for Thriving, University of Chester, Chester, UK

    Tony Wall

Section Editor information

  1. Universidade de Coimbra - Faculty of Law, Coimbra, Portugal

    Alexandra Aragão

  2. Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

    Anabela Marisa Azul

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Thompson, K.O. (2020). Agrarianism: The Way to Sustainability and Resilience. In: Leal Filho, W., Azul, A., Brandli, L., Lange Salvia, A., Wall, T. (eds) Life on Land. Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71065-5_146-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71065-5_146-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-71065-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-71065-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Earth and Environm. ScienceReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Earth and Environmental Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation